My dad likes to play the lottery. He isn’t a fanatic or anything, but he buys tickets from time to time and always jokes about what he’d do with the money if he won. Sometimes he let’s the machine pick the numbers, but most of the time he buys a ticket with his lucky set. Three of the numbers are the birthdays of my brother, mother and grandmother and the other is his anniversary date.
This time he didn’t buy a ticket for the $587.5 million Powerball jackpot, but this time his numbers were picked! Four of the six numbers, including the Powerball number, were among the four he plays week after week. If you match four numbers including the power ball you win $10,000 and $10,000 would’ve made a pretty sweet Christmas gift!
Well you win some, you lose some, but it’s true what they say “you have to be in it to win it” and this week of all weeks he decided not to play. I haven’t talked to my dad yet today, but I’m sure he’s kicking himself about it.
I rarely play the lottery, but I do enter online giveaways from time to time. Winning for me is less about the prize then the excitement of being picked. I’ve been pretty lucky in the past. I once won a $250 gift card to Marshall’s. That was definitely my biggest haul, but I’ve also won smaller prizes typically ranging from $25 to $50. My favorite prizes are money and gift cards, but I’ve also won board games, books and even a huge box packed with high-quality barbeque sauces.
I’m usually a pretty optimistic girl, but I really love the idea that luck is on my side. Entering and winning giveaways somehow reinforces that notion. Here’s to hoping I win a couple of prizes and that my dad’s lucky numbers are picked on a day he actually plays the lottery!
As far as giveaways go, I really don’t like giving out my information like that. From experience on Marketing teams, I know that giveaways and contests are just information hauls. The information you give is worth much more to the company than the prize they’re offering to you.
I agree! I tend to enter giveaways that only require an email address as a point of entry. I only want them to collect my address if they are planning on sending me a prize!